The Mechanical aspect of toys takes us all the way back to the 18th Century Europe. At this time, there seemed to be an interest in producing intricate mechanical 'toys', which were really more like objects of curiosity were made. These figures were called Automatons, and were made to varying degrees of complexities. To shed more light into the mechanics of Automantons, they incorporated a mix of mechanical parts such as "cranks, gears, and pulleys", all interconnected to execute a series of movements. This technology used was akin to that of mechanical clocks and music boxes. By all accounts, however, Automaton making is largely limited to a few people, due to the complexities of making one. An Automaton maker had to have in depth knowledge of both mechanical and aesthetic feasibility. Furthermore,it is believed that trade secrets to the engineering of these pieces were never recorded, and died together with these Automaton makers. People in the 18th Century did however, seem to have a healthy intrigue with automatons, the popular ballet Coppelia was basically about Automatons, and E.T.A Hoffman featured Automatons in one of his short stories .
Automatons of the 18th century seemed to be fairly intricate, and were not just limited to humanoid figures. According to Henri Decremps, these Automatons could be constructed to do a vast array of things, including writing playing card games, playing chess, speak (?) as well as play music. Although automatons were not strictly toys, per se, as they certainly were not meant for casual play and would have been much to expensive to be commonly available, The idea of using mechanics to make a moving object would in the future would be extremely relevant to toy making.
There were mechanical dolls which were popular during the Edo period(17th-19th century) in Japan, too. Called Karakuri, the mechanical technology of Japan was inspired by both a mix of the water clock technology in China as well as what little western science they manged to get their hands on. These Karakuri had various purposes. Some could be used in stage shows, while others were made for home entertainment (they could serve tea) or festivals.
In the late 19th Century, french company Jumeau produced a doll called Bebe Phonographe. While the doll was not exactly an automaton in the sense that it could not move. the makers incorporated a mechanical talking device into the doll. The Bebe Phonographe could supposedly tell stories and sing songs. Like the automaton, however, Bebe too was sort of a rare object these days- only a handful of batches were produced as she was extremely expensive.
Inside of a Jumeau and Talking Barbie
Skip about 70 years ahead to the 1960s, where toy company Mattel were finally able to produce mechanical talking dolls that used a simple pull-string and speaker mechanism and were affordable to make and sell, although these dolls were only able to speak a few lines. Their popular models included 'Chatty Cathy' , a baby doll and ‘talking barbie’, a fashion doll.
While it is true that commercial toys of today do not incorporate as complex mechanical movements as the automatons of the past (everything is programmable these days anyway), the concept behind these objects could almost be discerned as mimesis - or the attempt to mimic real-life. Of course, the idea is that it is near impossible to try and portray 'reality' - could that be a reason why the furby- with its own language and unidentifiable species is able to capture hearts of adults and kids more than any 'living doll' or 'animal' can? Most interactive toys of today would use both a speaker and microphone system to detect the human voice. Presumably they have also adapted and incorporated voice recognition technologies into these toys.
No comments:
Post a Comment